bydans
a moving festival
The main collaborators of bydans 2024 are KOMMA Performance Productions, RIVA the Faroese Dance Company, and the Nordic House in the Faroe Islands.
About the festival
bydans is a new dance festival bringing high quality dance experiences and opportunities to rural areas in the Nordic region. The festival will travel to a new area biennially and collaborate with local artists and engage with the local community. Thus creating more opportunities to experience dance, widening the perspective of contemporary dance as well as creating work opportunities for dance artists in/from rural Nordic areas.
The team behind bydans 2024 are Caroline Blomqvist (SE/DK), Rannvá Guðrunardóttir Niclasen (FO/DK), Vár Bech Árting (FO) and Mathilde Caeyers (NO) - all professional and self-producing dance artists and pioneers of contemporary dance in their respective areas.
RIVA the Faroese Dance Company / Credit: Gwenaël Akira Helmsdal Carré
Consept
bydans is a biennial 2-day dance festival, celebrating the diversity of contemporary dance and aiming to bring a wider range of contemporary dance to places where there is a wish for better access to dance experiences. bydans brings together artists, presents what dance is today and what it can bring to people of all ages and backgrounds. The concept is simple: a dance festival spanning over two days, with performances, installations, and dance events. The festival occurs biennially and in a new location each time. The location for the festival is decided based on where there is a wish to raise the access to and awareness of dance. It is important that bydans engages with and listens to the local artists and community, adjusting and tweaking the festival according to the specific area - taking into consideration the positive ripple effect bydans can bring the local community.
bydans will have its initial kick-off in the Faroe Islands, housed by the Nordic House, from October 28th, with performances on the 2nd to 3rd of November 2024. The first edition of bydans will present the three Nordic works: “Kanska Ein Bygd” by RIVA The Faroese Dance Company, “Where Even Flowers Can Grow” by Caroline Blomqvist & Nadja Bounenni and “Boundary” by Mathilde Caeyers, the last of which was chosen through an open call sent out in December 2023.
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RIVA: Kanska Ein Bygd (FO)
A poetic performance that merges poetry and choreography. The frame is a gallery of portraits shaped by conversations and choreographic narrations about different people. What they all have in common is that they have passed away. The work is an attempt to create an intimate exploration of how we are collectively and as individuals and what we leave behind once we are not here anymore.
Boundary by Mathilde Caeyers, credit: Karianne Andreassen
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Caroline Blomqvist and Nadja Bounenni: Where Even Flowers Can Grow (DK)
An artistic exploration of well-being and mental health through movement, light, sound and spatiality. This cross-aesthetic dance performance aspires for moments of subtle and profound collective transformations.
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Mathilde Caeyers: Boundary (NO)
A virtual reality dance film that simulates the experience of visiting somebody’s consciousness. This is the closest you can come to encounter somebody else’s experience of the world, still there is a limitation.
Following the initial kick-off, the festival programme will continue to consist of works by RIVA and KOMMA Performance Productions and the third work change based on the location at which the festival will be held, as this third work will include the work of a local artist selected via an open call.
Where Even Flowers Can Grow, Credit: Morten Arnfred
Curational focus:
The aim of the project is to widen the perspective of dance as an art field, offer more dance experiences and create more work opportunities for dance artists in rural areas. With the festival kicking off in Faroe Islands, the focus will initially be the Faroese public and the Faroese dance scene.
One way we are facilitating this change of perception and increase of awareness is through the curation of the programme. The programme consists of three works that have different forms; a VR dance film experience, an intimate performance where the audience gets close to the performers and an evening length performance where poetry and dance intertwine and which will be experienced from above. Being able to experience new formats of dance expands the audience’s view on what dance can do.
Based on this we have curated a program consisting of three strong, emotional and innovative works to be experienced that offer us space to contemplate, feel deeply inspired & connect. Thus, this curation also has a common thread that centers around existentialism, and the range of emotions that comes with being human, conscious and subconscious. The different mental moods, longing for connection and the critical stages in life.
Producers and organisers: Vár Bech Árting (FO), Rannvá Guðrunardóttir Niclasen (FO/DK) and Caroline Blomqvist (SE/DK)
Assistant producers: Nadja Bounenni (DK) and Búi Rouch (FO)
Production manager at the Nordic House: Mie Meyle (DK/FO)
KOMMA Productions administrator and accountant: Astrid Gravsholt (DK)
Boundary
Choreography, Autistic direction and writing: Mathilde Caeyers
Set design: Vega Drake
Co-creating dancer: Karianne Andreassen
Filming and editing: Philip Halv
Programming and
Animation: Stian Andreassen
Kanska ein bygd
Choreography and performance: Búi Rouch (FO), Vár Bech Árting (FO) and Rannvá Guðrunardóttir Niclasen (FO/DK)
Poet: Beinir Bergsson
Composer: Heðin Ziska Davidsen
Light design and technician: Villiam Soo Joensen
Where Even Flowers Can Grow
Choreography and performance: Nadja Bounenni (DK/GR) and Caroline Blomqvist (SE/DK)
Composer and sound designer: Ingri Kvamstad Høyland
Light designer: Ulrich Ruchlinski/ ImULto (SE)
Stage and costume designer: Aina Erika Jonasson (DK)
Team
Schedule
Where Even Flowers Can Grow, Credit: Morten Arnfred
bydans objective
The team behind bydans have experienced first hand the reality of growing up in an area where access to dance experiences was limited. This common denominator was the catalyst for bydans, a dance festival created from the need for more representation of dance in more secluded areas where dance isn’t as prominent in the artistic landscape.
Contributing to a more diverse representation of contemporary dance experiences by offering a wider range of dance works for the audience. By creating a platform for local and Nordic dance artists to meet and exchange artistic ideas, thoughts and experiences, we hope to build new connections that will continue to grow and have a ripple effect on both artists and their respective place of residence. Nurturing both the local dance environment as well as the participating Nordic dancers and choreographer’s careers.
This project takes place in Tórshavn at the Nordic House in the Faroe Islands.
Project period:
21st of October 2024 - 4th of November 2024
21st to 26th of October: RIVA, together with the Nordic House in the Faroe Islands, will be doing all the pre-production related to the debut and official opening of the festival e.g. PR, technical riders, travel logistics and more.
27th of October: Arrival day for artists coming from abroad.
28th of October: Artists get together and creative exchange.
29th of October - 1st of November: Get-in, technical set-up and rehearsals.
2nd - 3rd of November: Festival days, performances and exhibition.
4th of November: Departure day.
5th - 19th of November: The team will start the post-production work, e.g. report writing, final accounting and evaluation shortly after the festival.
20th of November: We will schedule a full day for a meeting to go through the work and start the initial planning for the continuation of bydans.